MDR on UPI coming soon; India's new class of robot workers

Happy Friday! With a fee on UPI set to come into the picture soon, issuing banks are poised to claim the biggest slice. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ ETtech Done Deals
■ New fintech SRO created
■ Impact of Anthropic researcher’s exit

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MDR notification likely to be out for businesses soon; banks to pocket bulk of 40 bps fee

Banks are set to receive the largest share of a proposed 40-basis-point UPI merchant discount rate, split among issuing banks, payment apps and acquiring banks.

How it will work:

• Issuing banks would retain 40% of the fee, while third-party apps such as PhonePe and Google Pay and acquiring banks would receive 30% each.
• The issuing bank would earn 16 basis points, with the app and acquiring bank getting 12 basis points.
• The notification is expected in the coming weeks. MDR may apply to merchants above Rs 1-1.5 crore in annual turnover and transactions exceeding Rs 2,000, with sector-specific rates possible.

Why it matters:

• Parliament has created an enabling framework for MDR, while regular users, person-to-person transfers and small merchants are expected to remain outside the fee regime.
• The move would partly unwind six years of zero MDR as incentives decline and banks and fintechs continue to call the model unsustainable.
• UPI handled 15.51 billion merchant payments in August. Jefferies estimates the high-ticket cohort could generate Rs 5,000-10,000 crore in annual MDR revenue.

Also Read: UPI apps could chase big-ticket transactions as MDR return looms

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India's physical AI boom spawns a new class of robot workers

The rise of physical AI, where AI systems interact with the real world through robots and automation, is generating a new layer of workers beyond traditional data labellers.

New roles: Staffing firms and robotics startups are hiring and training people not just to collect data but also to operate, supervise and eventually maintain machines.

New positions such as teleoperators, robot operators, field technicians, data annotators, supervisors and robotics maintenance staff are emerging.


Number-wise:

• US-based staffing technology platform Instawork, which connects businesses with hourly workers, has hired around 6,000 people in India and currently has more than 250 open roles as it expands into physical AI and robotics.
• India’s Awign is similarly building a physical AI business, hiring for robotics and physical AI engineering, client solutions and data operations.

Why India matters: Robotics labs increasingly need diverse, high-quality multimodal datasets that reflect different environments, tasks and behaviours. This creates an opportunity for India’s large, varied workforce.

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Paris Panini operator Popo Global closes Rs 532 crore investment from Artal Asia

L-R: AB Gupta and Nikhil Gupta, founders, Popo Global

Quick-service restaurant (QSR) company Popo Global has closed a Rs 532 crore investment from Artal Asia, an affiliate of US-based investment firm Invus Group. Singapore-based Artal Asia has previously backed companies such as Burger Singh and Jumbotail.

Deal details:

• Sources said this round values the bootstrapped company at about Rs 1,250 crore.
• With this investment, Artal Asia now holds a significant minority stake in Popo Global; its investment mainly comprises secondary transactions.

About the company: Founded in 2017 by brothers AB Gupta and Nikhil Gupta, Popo Global operates Bengaluru-based chains Pizza Bakery, Paris Panini and Smash Guys Burger Kitchen.

Swish raises $24 million to scale 10-minute food delivery

Ten-minute food delivery startup Swish has raised $24 million as competition heats up in this segment.

More on the round: The funding was led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), with existing investors Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, and Hara Global also taking part. The company told ET that it will use the fresh capital to expand its kitchen network, supply chain, and other operations.

What’s their model: Unlike other food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy, Swish operates its own kitchens and prepares its own food.

Fashion brand Theater raises Rs 75 crore at Rs 410 crore valuation

Fashion brand Theater has raised Rs 75 crore in a round led by Niveshaay, with participation from Physis Capital and existing investor Prath Ventures. Theater sells western fashion accessories and shoes and competes with legacy brands. The company positions its products between premium and mass-market offerings.

Tell me more:

• The round values the startup at Rs 410 crore post-money.
• The Chandigarh-based firm will use the funding for offline expansion, brand building, celebrity partnerships, and marketing initiatives, cofounder Sarthak Aggarwal told ET.

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Other Top Stories By Our Reporters

RBI recognises second self-regulatory body: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recognised Unified Fintech Forum (UFF) as a self-regulatory organisation for the fintech sector (SRO-FT), making it the second such body to receive the central bank’s approval.

When AI masters fear their own creations: Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quitting the company has sparked a larger debate over the risks of advanced AI, how fast frontier AI labs are developing the technology and whether they can keep increasingly powerful systems under human control.

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Global Picks We Are Reading

■ Moonshot capitalism: AI rewrites the venture capital playbook (FT)

■ Google Earth’s AI experiment lasted 24 hours. The damage to trust will linger (Rest of World)

■ SpaceX overhauls data center build-out, potentially slowing expansion (The Information)